Two more Covid-19 deaths at L&D Hospital as cases 'on the increase' in Luton

The number of coronavirus in-patients at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital has also risen.

"Things are changing very quickly," according to Luton Borough Council's director of public health, Gerry Taylor.

"The number of confirmed cases has gone up significantly since mid-September," she told the council's health and wellbeing board.

"The rate is 122 cases per 100,000, which is a real significant increase over what we've seen recently," she warned.

"It had been some time since we had a hospital death. We have had a couple of deaths at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital in the last week.

"The situation recently has escalated in line with the rest of the country.

"It's very disappointing to see we've now had those two deaths at the L&D.

"Our rates remain lower than the England rate, as in large parts of the country there are significantly higher rates than ours in terms of cases per 100,000.

"We're concerned about the position in Luton and we want to do everything we can to halt that rise in cases in the town."

Under the government's current scheme, each local authority area is either a medium, high or very high ranking in the new framework.

"Luton is currently in the medium category, so that means the national rules apply to us," said the director of public health.

"So key to that is the rule of a maximum of six people meeting together and the early closing of some hospitality premises at 10pm.

"Talks will be ongoing this week about the position for Luton and what needs to be in place locally given the increase in the number of cases.

"So we remain in discussion about the position of Luton going forward."

Access to testing has been an issue as that has been prioritised to some of the areas with higher rates.

"We've seen some increase in testing and we're working with our colleagues in Public Health England to ensure the right testing is available for the town, she explained.

"We've been achieving a good success rate locally for our contact tracing. In some weeks we achieve 100 per cent, which has pushed up the figures.

"Our completion rate for contact remains lower. This is something we don't do ourselves and is done through the national system.

"We would like to see how we can take on more of that contact tracing part of our approach going forward."

In education establishments, single cases have been recorded in some schools, without any outbreaks, added the director of public health.

"We've also seen a few cases in the University of Bedfordshire, but not a great number to date."